This invention pertains to fabrication of electronic devices such as integrated circuits that use low-k dielectrics in metallization layers; more specifically this invention relates to low-k dielectric process integration for fabricating integrated circuits.
The extreme performance requirements and the complexity of the devices pose challenges for the fabrication of electronic devices. The fabrication of such devices may require hundreds of process steps of a variety of types. Many of the process steps must be performed with severe tolerances for the results of each of the process steps. Frequently, there are unfavorable interactions between various process steps where the process conditions required for one process step have an adverse effect on prior or subsequent process steps. Because of this complexity, it is often difficult to identify the cause of a process integration problem. After identifying the cause of a process integration problem, there still remains the difficult task of finding a solution for the problem. In order to fabricate high-performance electronic devices so as to achieve high yield and acceptable cost, process integration problems, when discovered, need to be solved.